Buffalo goalie Mika Noronen was credited with a goal when Toronto's Robert Reichel accidentally put the puck into an empty net Saturday in the Sabres' 6-4 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.
With Toronto down 5-4, Reichel tried to pass the puck from behind Buffalo's net, but the puck went all the way down the ice and into the empty net. Noronen, the last Buffalo player, to touch the puck was credited with the goal.
"It's pretty funny," Noronen said. "I guess I was the last guy to touch the puck. I don't know. It was fun."
Noronen got the puck and said he might put it in his summer cabin.
"It's my first goal ever," he said. "Hopefully, it's not the last one."
Noronen is the eighth NHL goalie to score, and the first since San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov did it against Vancouver on March 10, 2002. New Jersey's Martin Brodeur and former Philadelphia goalie Ron Hextall have each scored twice, both once in the regular season and once in the playoffs.
Maxim Afinogenov, Ales Kotalik, Curtis Brown, Chris Drury and J.P Dumont added goals for the Sabres, who won for the seventh time in eight games and improved to 10-2-2 in their last 14 home games.
Reichel, Matt Stajan, Aki Berg and Alexei Ponikarovsky scored for Toronto.
Avalanche 5, Red Wings 2
In Detroit, Alex Tanguay scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and David Aebischer made 28 saves as Colorado beat Detroit.
Tanguay scored off a rebound, and Joe Sakic had a power-play goal midway through the third period to put Colorado ahead 4-2.
Aebischer made two spectacular saves against Brett Hull in the third -- just before and after Sakic's 23rd goal. Teemu Selanne, Karlis Skrastins and Peter Forsberg also scored for Colorado. Steve Yzerman and Jiri Fischer scored for Detroit.
Flyers 6, Rangers 2
In Philadelphia, Sean Burke stopped 25 shots for his 300th career victory as Philadelphia beat New York for it's fifth straight win.
Burke won his second straight game -- both against the Rangers -- since being acquired from Phoenix on Monday.
Patrick Sharp scored two goals, Radovan Somik, John LeClair, Michal Handzus, and Tony Amonte also scored, and Kim Johnsson had three assists for the Flyers, 8-1-1-0 in their last 10 games. Chris Simon and Alex Kovalev had power-play goals for New York.
Devils 4, Hurricanes 1
In East Rutherford, New Jersey, Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta set each other up for first-period goals, helping the Devils end a three-game losing streak.
Jeff Friesen and Mike Rupp also scored for the Stanley Cup champions. Martin Brodeur made 14 saves, allowing only Jeff O'Neill's goal. Carolina is 0-4-2-0 in its last six games.



